Why UNESCO recognized 21st February as International Mother Language Day?

We celebrate 21st February as International Mother Language Day. But it has a deep history.

India and Pakistan were divided in 1947. Pakistan was separated into 2 parts. One is East Pakistan, and the other is West Pakistan. The capital city was in West Pakistan. After the division, West Pakistan started to exploit East Pakistan. They started with the mother tongue. The mother language of East Pakistan was Bangla. West Pakistan wanted to make Urdu the mother tongue of East Pakistan. In 1948 Muhammad Ali Jinnah took a speech at Dhaka University. He said that" Urdu and Urdu will be the state language of East Pakistan." The student present there said," No, No." Then we started to protest against West Pakistan to save our mother tongue. At the first stage, only students of Dhaka University started the protest to save our mother tongue. After that, the general people also join with them. As a result, the protest got weird. West Pakistan started to stop them. But they failed. Then they started discussing how to stop the protest. On the other hand, the student and general people want to make a great movement on 21st February 1952. 

Then the East Pakistan leaders decided to give 144 Dhara to stop the strike or movement. But the protestor didn't pay any heed to that. They break the 144 rules and gone out with their placards written, " আমরি বাংলা ভাষা, রাষ্ট্রভাষা বাংলা চাই |." At first, police charged sticks at them, but they didn't break their protest. Again police threw crying bombs on them. But nothing happened to them. Then police started to fire them. Rafique, Salam ,Barkat, Jabbar and many other protester died. The road became red with their blood.

At last, with the sacrifices of so many martyrs, Pakistan makes the state language Bangla. From then, the only Bengali people started to celebrate 21st February as Mother Language Day. This gives out freedom fighters the spirit of an Independent Country. Using the spirit, we got an enemy-free Bangladesh in 1971. After that, the government declared 21st February as a government holiday. On this day, the commemoration begins with mourning songs that recall the supreme sacrifices of our language martyrs. People wear black badges and go to the Shaheed Minar with a bare foot to give floral wreaths to the martyrs. Various programs were also held on that day. We observe the day with great respect. 

The UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation) on 17 November. In 1999 proclaimed February 21 as the International Mother Language Day in recognition of the sacrifices of the martyrs for the rightful place of Bangla. The day is now annually observed worldwide to promote awareness of linguistics and multilingualism. It is a respect of Bangla language as no nation has ever given their lives for the mother language. We have made a world record by sacrificing our life to protect our mother tongue. UNESCO has given us recognization. We love our mother tongue.

So, in this way, UNESCO recognized 21st February as International Mother Language Day.